Texas man charged with kidnapping, raping migrant women he was hired to smuggle into U.S.

A cartel-linked Texas man is facing accusations that he kidnapped a 17-year-old girl that his criminal group had been hired to smuggle into the country. The man also allegedly raped many women who were smuggled into the U.S.

Deputy U.S. Marshals and FBI agents apprehended Ernesto “El Payaso” Solis on Thursday in the town of Peñitas, near McAllen, Texas, on a warrant issued by the Eastern District of Virginia. He was charged with multiple counts of extortion and kidnapping.

He appeared before Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby on Friday, who ordered that he be held without bond. Solis will eventually be moved to Virginia to face trial for the charges.

As part of a federal probe, authorities discovered that Solis would rape the women that his criminal organization would be paid to smuggle, Breitbart News reported.

The case was opened on November 8th when Nelson Mendoza and his wife, Rosibel De Los Angeles Rivas Mendoza, called the Leesburg Police Department in Virginia regarding the abduction of their daughter. Both parents told investigators that they are illegals from El Salvador and had arranged to have their 17-year-old girl smuggled into the U.S. However, the smugglers kidnapped their daughter and were extorting them for thousands of dollars.

The family paid $7,300 to smuggle the teenager from El Salvador to Houston, but she disappeared in the Texas border city of McAllen. The family then reportedly started to receive calls demanding cash in return for the release of their daughter.

With the assistance of Houston Police and phone taps, agents managed to track down and rescue the girl on December 7th. Authorities arrested one of the smugglers, identified as Juan Lopez Gonzalez. Based on the information gathered from Lopez’s apprehension, authorities successfully tracked down Solis in the rural community of Peñitas.